nanak amy nada (for your dreams, but from the Book of Nanak, which I was reading last night) Guru Nanak's travels through Assam led him to Guwahati and then on to Manipur, identified in the sakhis as the country of Bisiar. Moving in the southwestern direction, the Guru moved to Shillong, Sylhet, Chittagong, and Dhaka. In Dhaka, as in many other places, there is a shrine called Charan Paduka (wooden sandals from holy feet) that is part of the strong local tradition supporting the visit of the Guru. Passing through Calcutta and Cuttack, the Guru is then said to have reached Puri in Orissa, the site of the famous temple of Jagannath. Jagannath temple is known for its annual procession when the ideol is mounted on a huge chariot and the multitudes that gather vie with each other for the privilege of pulling the chariot. It is an inexorable sea of humanity that moves with the idol, a phenomenon that gave the word 'juggernaut' to the English language. When Guru Nanak and Mardana camped near the temple, their hymns and music attracted several devotees on their way to the temple, annoying the temple priests. One day the chief priest, Krishanlal, came to Nanak and invited him to join the aarti, or the evening prayer, in the temple, and Guru Nank readily accompanied him. It was a beautiful ceremony, conducted at dusk. The priests placed earthen lamps filled with ghee on a bejewelled salver decorated with flower petals and sweet incense. They lit the wicks and swung the salver, pendulum-like, in front of the image while the congregation sang hymns, blew conches and tolled the bells that hung from the ceiling. Nanak sat unmoved through the ceremony, and when the priests expressed their anger at this, he responded with a song, that is now included in the Granth Sahib. This song describes a celestial aarti in which the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, the forests, and the unstruck music pay obeisance to the great creator. This, according to Nanak, was the only aarti that could be offered to God. The sky the salver, the sun and moon the lamps, The stars studding the heavens are the pearls The fragrance of sandal is the incense Fanned by the winds, all for Thee The great forests are the flowers. What a beautiful aarti is being performed For you, O Destroyer of fear. --Raga Dhanasari (Nanak was a very critical guru, and I find myself in a love/hate relationship with most displays of religious ceremony. in the end, though, i suppose it has to be that way.) 091122 what's it to you? who go blather from